Politics, Entertainment and Lifestyle from South India

Latest entrant to the Anti-National Bandwagon: Asaduddin Owaisi

Mohan Bhagwat, the chief of RSS recently said that the new generation needs to be taught slogans hailing the country. To this, AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi has said he will not chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ even if a knife is put to his throat.

This statement of his drew a lot of criticism by Nationalists across the country; including sharp condemnation from RSS, BJP and Shiv Sena while he stood by his statement made at a public rally.

“I don’t chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat sahab,” the Lok Sabha MP from Hyderabad said at the rally in Udgir tehsil of Latur district in Maharashtra on Sunday.

“I won’t utter that (slogan) even if you put a knife to my throat,” Owaisi said, amid loud applause from the crowd.

“Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’,” Owaisi said.

On March 3, Bhagwat had said the new generation needs to be taught to chant slogans hailing mother India, comments which came against the backdrop of the row over alleged anti-India sloganeering on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus.

“Now the time has come when we have to tell the new generation to chant ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ (hail mother India). It should be real, spontaneous and part of all-round development of the youth,” the RSS chief had said.

Asked by reporters to comment on the condemnation of his statement, Owaisi said he stood by it, asserting there is no violation of any law or Constitution in what he said.

“Whom is he (Bhagwat) trying to frighten? He can’t force his ideology on others,” the AIMIM leader said.

“I have asked Maharashtra government to take action against him,” Kadam said.

Anti-Nationalism and shooting anti-national statements seem to have become a fad in our country lately and it is disturbing that somebody who is born of this soil is not proud of this or doesn’t want to hail their mother-land. South Report condemns all anti-national statements and sentiments and urges all Indians to be together for a glorious India.